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Pity that Iraqis hate it because it reminds them of the Evil Zionist Entity's flag.
They should have made the crescent moon green, and not blue. I can understand some of the reasons for using blue, but still, you would think that they would have recognized the similarity to Israel's flag...
Why are the Kurds the only faction that is represented? Why would any of the others support that?
Because the Kurds are one of the larger factions and could decide to break away from the rest of Iraq at any time (which I think they should do. You don't let a drowining man pull you down with him).
I doubt this flag will be around for long. It was introduced by the Governing Council, which has zero respect. Let's see what the semi-legit gov't of June 30th adopts.
Just out of curiosity, how did they arrive at this particular choice and how did they respond to criticism that it may have resembled the flag of Israel?
I don't find FH's comments all that funny; I think the choice of lavan v'techelet (white and light blue, the official colors of the Jewish prayer shawl and copied on the Israeli flag) couldn't be stupider. Except, I suppose, if then compounded by a motif of a religious symbol and horizontal stripes. One blog comment I saw was someone saying it looked like Israeli Arabs' suggestions for an Israeli flag! Couldn't we have rearranged the old, traditional colors used on every Middle Eastern flag (except Israel's)?
I suppose they want something distinctive to help us distinguish friendlies from hostiles in the upcoming civil war.
Too bad this was the worst decision ever.
The two blue stripes representing the Tigris and Euphrates also represent the Shia and Sunni.
Everybody wants to be an art director.
Everybody wants to call the shots.
Everybody wants to be a flag dissecter
Changing all my stars to polka dots.
Everybody thinks that he's the final word
On what is strictly out and what is in.
How'd you like a flag that featured fleur-de-lys
On ochre corrugated tin?
Stan Freberg (The United States of America)
Actually, I agree. It's ugly. Won't last a year.
Acctually I think it looks rather sharp. I do agree that singling out the Kurds for recognition is a bit odd but the idea of having the two blue stripes represent the Sunni's and Shiite's is a good one.
I wouldn't put too much stock in all the criticisms. This will be a good start. Design is much like war in that 'no good design survives review by the client'. This is probably the first step in coming up with a new flag design.
Obviously, a UCLA fan came up with the draft.
Allah's two sets of suggested alternatives are truly hilarious.
When the current Canadian flag was rolled out in the 1960s, the chorus of distate was loud and long. Now if you dissed the design, people would just think you were weird.
As for the Israeli resemblance thing, I don't see it. Because it uses white with blue stripes (uh, Greece? Finland? that isn't exactly rare) And what about the yellow? Maybe they were really trying to rip off Barbados...
I think any new flag design is going to be criticized. However, the similarities with the flag of Israel seem quite strong to me.
what process lead to this design? I may be wrong but it seems unlikely that an unencumbered group of Iraqi's would have come up with that colour scheme.
It's instructive that the loudest criticism is that it looks like the Israeli flag.
Aesthetically, I like it, but what I think doesn't really matter much.
What really bugs me are the complaints about the colour scheme being not "Arab". Iraqis, evidently, still don't get that a good chunk of their problems are from the view that they are Arabs first, Iraqis second.
http://bluerev.blogspot.com/2004_04_25_bluerev_archive.html#108311661051339172
I like the design. And you have to be pleased that it does not have a sword of militant Islam on it or any religious writing. I am glad to see that the crescent is not green—the traditional color for Islam. Reminds one too much of the Palestinian flags draped around jihadis both alive and dead.
The crescent is just as "subtle" as the star of David. ;-)
As for the blue. Lots of countries have pale blue. . .
The old flag looked aggressive. This is better.
Here's something really fun with flags: http://www.37.co.yu/fi/
Just checked.
1034 Flags have blue of one shade/value or another.
Joe, just about everyone notices the resemblance except you.
Israeli and New Iraq both have flags that feature a mostly white field, two blue horizontal stripes, and a religious symbol in blue. The shade of blue appears to be much closer to the Israeli flag (and, in turn, the tallit) than to Finland's. (Greece, I do admit, uses a shade similar to Israel.) In any event, none of the New Iraqi colors, other than white, are found on the flags of other Arab nations. The only differences between Israel and New Iraq are the choice of religious symbol, the addition of a third stripe in yellow, and the placement of the stripes.
To make matters worse, many Arabs believe that the stripes on the Israeli flag, like the stripes on New Iraq, represent rivers: the Nile and the Euphrates, the alleged boundaries of Zionists' Greater Israel. I viewed this as a vile anti-Semitic slur until I read the exact same claim made by Limor Livnat's father [Shimon??], a member of the maximalist wing of the Likud and their honorary candidate for Knesset in 1999. So this slur has been adopted by its targets! (On hearing the dubious excuse that the Iraqi stripes represent Shia and Sunni, I assume the next rumor is that the Israeli stripes are Ashkenazim and Sephardim.)
Your comments don't allow for images, but this is Malaysia's flag. Wouldn't you admit that even though it includes a yellow star and crescent, it's clearly related to the American flag? The flag of Puerto Rico has only three red stripes, two white stripes, and one white star in a triangular blue canton [?]. Despite these differences, the relation to our Stars and Stripes is clear. I would say that the New Iraq flag's relationship is not as close as Malaysia's with us, but it's actually stronger than Puerto Rico's.
The flag is actually an eyesore. It is bottom-heavy thanks to the three stripes and is too close (in a semiotic sense) to the white flag of parlay/surrender and the white flag of the Red Cross/Red Crescent. I can understand the desires to divorce the flag from its immediate predecessors, but that also makes it seem like yet another artificial symbol in a land that has too many things in flux.
It has all the sins of a "design by comittee" and none of the virtues. Could it be that it was chosen with full knowledge that it would soon be replaced once the Yanks are gone?
Well, if we see the old flag on Iraqi pickups and outside Iraqi trailers 140 years from now, then we'll know that the Iraqi reconstruction went about as well as America's first attempted Reconstruction.
Which isn't half bad, all things considered.
Ken, you're white, aren't you?
I agree that it looks something like the Israeli flag, and that the stripes overwhelm the crescent.
Imho, the smallest change that would leave it looking better (and coincidentally, less like the Israeli flag) would be to make the stripes vertical and put them on the left edge.
However, there may be no way to keep gold and dark blue from swamping light blue on white. Other possibilities: bend the stripes around the crescent, make the crescent dark or medium blue, make the stripes wide (horizontal or vertical as you please) and put the crescent on top of them.
Just sayin.'
From a strictly vexillological [sp?] standpoint I like Nancy Lebovitz's suggestions, but can't we also make the crescent green??
Well, after protests in Mosul, the IGC is changing it already.
"I viewed this as a vile anti-Semitic slur until I read the exact same claim made by Limor Livnat's father [Shimon??], a member of the maximalist wing of the Likud and their honorary candidate for Knesset in 1999. So this slur has been adopted by its targets! (On hearing the dubious excuse that the Iraqi stripes represent Shia and Sunni, I assume the next rumor is that the Israeli stripes are Ashkenazim and Sephardim.)"
Um, Andrew, it is a vile antisemitic slur. I am well-embedded in the mainstream American Jewish community, which includes many people with friends and relatives in Israel (i.e. the two communities which comprise the vast majority of world Jewry) and I don't know of anyone - religious or secular, Orthodox to Reform - who thinks of Israel's maximal boundaries as the Tigris and the Euphrates. How long did you have to search to find one obscure nutjob who says this ?
I don't think it's useful to take on the most paranoid fantasizing of heavily propagandized, history- and news-deprived people.
Yehudit, did you read what I posted? Livnat's father isn't some obscure nutjob, he's a distinguished veteran of Lehi and ran in the ceremonial 120th position on Likud's 1999 Knesset list.
His interview in Ha'aretz (not online that I can find) is the only place I have seen a Jew state that the stripes on the flag represent the Nile and Euphrates, but a Google search for Jews who believe that those are the ordained boundaries of Greater Israel turned up only nutcases. (Not just one, either.)
I'm not saying any large number of Jews believe this; I'm more fascinated by the fact that such a slur could have many any headway in the Jewish community.
It must be added, though, that Rabbi Levinger has called for Israeli settlement on the east bank of the Jordan, including Amman. He may be a nutjob, but a successful and influential one to date.
see my above comment. this is all moot.
So the crescent represents Islam, while the white field represents peace.
Hmm... Are they saying there's a difference? I thought Islam was the Religion of Peace™.
Or have we been horribly misled...?
I think the proposed flag is ugly.
Why not leave them their old colors? They've had them for a long time. I like my own idea better than the blue thing (or Allah's, admittedly hilarious, bunch). Old colors, new slogan. The English would have to be translated to Arabic but I did what I could.
New Iraqi Flag Won't Fly - Pamela Constable (Washington Post)
It was supposed to be the perfect symbol for a new and unified Iraq: an Islamic crescent on a field of pure white, with two blue stripes representing the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and a third yellow stripe to symbolize the country's Kurdish minority.
But the new national flag, presented Monday after an artistic competition sponsored by the Iraqi Governing Council, appears to have met with widespread public disapproval.
In particular, people objected to the pale blue color of the crescent and stripes, saying it was identical to the dominant color in the flag of Israel.
Let's see: Fallujah is burning, a wanted murderer has taken control of Najaf, Iraqis are dying by the scores and the GC decides to change the Iraqi flag.
Iraq needs a new flag but this is not it...
An interesting view about it can be seen here at one of my favourite blogs:
http://avari.blogs.com/weblog/2004/04/iraqs_got_a_new.html
The real new Iraqi Flag as designed by the American Friends of the Iraqi people.
The iraqi flag does not need changing.
Who cares about a crescent? what better representation of ISLAM than "Allah-hu-Akbar" ??
Traditional arab IS what the iraqi population is...does changing the flag change who they are? or what they've been through?
Iraqis ARE arabs, their population is mostly muslim and their original flag is their best representation.
the people distinguishing the "islamic" crescent from peace (represented by white) are idiots.
Islam is peace.
only when someone agresses against a muslim is when a muslim may take up arms to resist.
if you prick me do i not bleed? and if you wrong me shall i not revenge?
dull simile since revenge is not the reason to take up arms....
anyways, changing the flag is what the governing council is keeping themselves occupied with? Iraqis are dying everyday, changing the flag will change that? i think it'll increase violence. hardasses may not want to give in to this new flag...
my two cents.